Daughter of the Tide
by jraeross
Summary: Set near the beginning of Titan's Curse. When Percy meets Artemis after being rescued by her hunters, he makes an important decision. Like Bianca, Percy will be joining the hunt. Trans!Percy No pairings, because, y'know, oath of eternal maidenhood and all that jazz.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

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Obviously, I don't own Percy Jackson.

Just playing in Rick Riordan's sandbox.

* * *

 _"Zoë led me to the last tent, which looked no different from the others, and waved me inside. Bianca di Angelo was seated next to the auburn-haired girl, who I still had trouble thinking of as Artemis._

 _The inside of the tent was warm and comfortable. Silk rugs and pillows covered the floor. In the center, a golden brazier of fire seemed to burn without fuel or smoke. Behind the goddess, on a polished oak display stand, was her huge silver bow, carved to resemble gazelle horns. The walls were hung with animal pelts: black bear, tiger, and several others I didn't recognize. I figured an animal rights activist would've had a heart attack looking at all those rare skins, but maybe since Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, she could replenish whatever she shot. I thought she had another animal pelt lying next to her, and then I realized it was a live animal—a deer with glittering fur and silver horns, its head resting contentedly in Artemis's lap._

 _"Join us, Percy Jackson," the goddess said._

 _I sat across from her on the tent floor. The goddess studied me, which made me uncomfortable. She had such old eyes for a young girl._

 _"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked._

 _"Uh . . . a little."_

 _"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."_

 _"Go astray?" I asked._

 _"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."_

 _"Oh."_

 _Zoë sat down at Artemis's right. She glared at me as if all the stuff Artemis had just said was my fault, like I'd invented the idea of being a guy."_

* * *

I'll admit, I wasn't the smartest person in the room, err… tent. I glared right back at the girl, not really thinking about potentially angering the goddess right by her. "You know that I didn't choose to be born a boy, right?", I stated more than asked.

Zoë glared back just a little harder. "You know that none of the girls here in the hunt chose to be hurt by men. To be subjugated beneath them. To be considered their inferior in every society since the dawn of time. It doesn't matter that you didn't choose to be born. You are a part of the society that-"

Artemis cut the girl off, "No, let's hear what he has to say. You claim you didn't choose to be a boy. This is true. If you were given the option, however, you wouldn't choose to be a girl. You enjoy the benefits of oppression just as much as any other male. Surely you can see why my hunters would have some anger towards you."

I knelt before the Goddess, "I do understand the anger. But your wrong in that-"

Artemis had to prevent Zoë from throttling me, motioning for me to continue.

"Your wrong in stating that I wouldn't choose to be a girl, given the choice. I can't count the number of times I've wished to be a girl… I hate the body I was given…"

The goddess lifted my chin up, looking directly into my eyes. Though she appeared young from a distance, those piercing silver orbs showed an age her body belied. "If you choose I could give you your wish, as a member of my hunt."

I laughed. Really, really bad idea, laughing at a gift proffered by a Goddess. I guess my mind just wouldn't believe what had been offered.

Zoë finally snapped, shoving me into the ground with a knife held to my throat. "See how he mocks the grace of the Lady Artemis. He clearly didn't mean anything of what he said. Typical boy, thinking himself better than others."

Artemis' eyes flared, the knife in Zoë's hand winking from existence. "How dare you mock the plight of a fellow huntress! You should know better than that Zoë. We accept all, be they demigod, nymph or even mortal."

The hunter gaped back at her Goddess. "Are you serious my lady? The mortals we accept are still women. None will take kindly to a man in our midst. Least of all you, or so I had thought."

Artemis looked kindly toward her stubborn hunter. "You are correct. I would not tolerate a man among us. That is not what I offered. All of my hunters leave the world of men behind. This one more than almost any that have come before."

* * *

I watched as Bianca took her oath to Artemis.

"I . . . I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis."

"I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt."

While there was no change in her that I could see, Bianca reported that she felt stronger.

The goddess then turned to me. "It will be the same for you, if you wish to accept my offer."

Most of the hunters looked confused and mildly irritated, not knowing what the offer was. Zoë was obviously furious, though she couldn't speak against her Goddess. Grover was still to lovestruck with the Lady Artemis to understand what had been said. Thalia was competing with Zoë, waves of hatred pouring off of her.

I knelt to the ground before Artemis. "I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis"

It felt as if a cord was tightening around my heart, making me gasp and tremble.

"I turn my back on the company of men," I cried out as the pain became even more intense.

"Accept eternal maidenhood," I collapsed onto the ground curled up with tears coming from my eyes.

"And join the hunt." Everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

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Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan.

I'm just playing with the concepts.

This chapter is a little short, but I'm introducing a historical character who never made her way into the books, so it's important regardless.

Enjoy #^-^#

* * *

I woke gasping. The pain was gone, but the memory of it… Well, I wasn't gonna go participating in any gender changing rituals again in the near future. When I finally calmed down, taking a look at my surroundings, it seemed I was in a cabin.

It certainly wasn't Poseidon's cabin.

For one thing there was more than one bed, and they appeared to have been used.

The bigger clue was that it was full of hunters, chatting and laughing in camaraderie.

The moment they noticed I was awake, however, the whole cabin fell silent.

They all looked around at each other, trying to decide what to do. Eventually Bianca walked over to me, and Zoë sighed before coming over to join the new recruit.

"Umm… are you feeling okay?", Bianca asked gingerly.

I pretended to think about it, but my brain was still to tired to think. "I'm doing fine. It hurt really bad before I passed out, but I'm okay now."

My eyes widened. That… Was not my voice. Not even close. Looking down my hands and arms were thinner than I remembered. My body was shaped… different…

"D-Does anyone have a mirror?", I asked in that definitely-not-mine-but-so-much-lovelier-voice.

Zoë rolled her eyes, pointing to the bathroom at the end of the cabin. Walking towards it, I was torn between feeling awkward being in a cabin full of girls, and marveling at Artemis' blessing. I was able to move swiftly and silently with almost no effort at all, as well as sense the presences of those around me. I wasn't really feeling the extra strength, but that might just be because it was balanced out by… Other Changes…

Seeing myself in the mirror finally brought those changes to life. I gasped quite audibly. Standing in the mirror was a young woman with wavy jet black hair down to her shoulders, and my sea green eyes. I seemed to have lost a few inches, and was initially miffed about that… Until I remembered that no one expected girls to be tall. I also seemed to be dressed in hunter regalia. Not sure who had dressed me, but I tried hard not to think about it.

I slapped myself. Hard.

Definitely not a dream.

I turned back to the cabin, tears of happiness in my eyes. A hunter over in the corner muttered, "I told you he didn't actually mean it. Now look at him. Crying cause he has to be a girl."

It was too much. I rushed over to my bed, full on crying, happiness and sorrow and loneliness, I couldn't really tell what it was I was crying from. In between my sobs, I could hear the lieutenant chewing the girl out.

"Do you just not trust the Lady Artemis? She was quite clear about this being the girls deepest desire. Anything less, and that oath would have killed her. If you can find it in you to care about her, great. If not, then leave her alone. Gods know this is going to be hard enough for her without you breathing down her neck."

"I trust Artemis. I don't trust _him_. Even If he really wanted to be a girl, that's not how he was born."

Another girl stepped up out of the woodwork. "Well, do you trust _me_?"

"Of course I trust you Tease. We've been through more battles together than I could count. Plus, you're actually a girl, unlike _him_."

I just wanted to shrivel into the covers and vanish into nothing.

The new girl, Tease was her name, I guess, continued, "Well I was born with a boy's body just like she was. It doesn't change the fact that I'm a girl now, does it? So unless you want to make an enemy of me too, then you can take your opinions and shove them down to Tartarus."

She then walked over to my bed and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Hey there, I'm Sipriotes, but you can call me Tease for short, everyone born in the past thousand years does anyway. What do you want to be called?"

The question from the friendly girl stumped me. I really had no idea what name I'd go by.

She continued, "So… from what I've heard, you're a daughter of the Sea God. What would you think about Pearl? It fits with the theme, and seems similar enough to your past name, so the adjustment won't be too hard."

I nodded, still feeling a little cowed by everything. "I need to go talk to Thalia, find out what they're going to do about Annabeth going missing… She's gone now and it's my fault…"

Tease looked at me pityingly. "All right, let's go find her then."

"Let's?"

"Yes, let's. I'm not having you go around by yourself. If my past is anything to go by, people aren't going to react well to your makeover.", she looked to Zoë who gave us permission to go, with the express requirement that we be back in time to go over strategy for capture the flag that night.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading! And what do you all think of Tease so far? I'm kind of excited about where things will be going from here #^-^#_

 _Thanks for the kind reviews!_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

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Sorry for the lack of updating…

I was rather depressed and couldn't bring myself to write for quite a long time…

I got hormones toward the end of December tho, and they're helping a lot now #^-^#

Anyway, just hoping this gets to be a little more regularly scheduled now that I can think straight

* * *

I don't own Percy Jackson, wish I did, but I don't. So I'll just content myself with playing around here.

* * *

Contrary to Tease's warning, no one seemed to notice the two of us. That may or may not have been due to everyone watching a team of hunters stomping the Ares cabin at basketball, but the lack of attention came as a definite relief. We found Thalia sitting under a tree, grumbling to herself.

"Umm… Thalia?"

"What do you want?!", she snapped at us, "I've lost two of my friends in an incident related to you hunters, so I'm not exactly in a patient mood."

I paused for a second. Two friends? But only Annabeth had been… It clicked mid-thought. "Wait, so you really think of me as a friend? I honestly hadn't been certain.", I said, as a small smile slid up my lips.

Thalia, however, obviously still hadn't recognized me. "What?! I don't even know you. But thanks to your incompetent band of assailants, I've lost Annabeth and Percy." Three seconds later, Thalia had her own click, "Wait a sec… Percy? Is that you?"

Tease jumped in, "Well, actually, she goes by Pearl now."

Thalia gave me an appraising look. "Not bad. Not bad at all… Pearl was it? I mean, I guess a goddess _would_ be able to pull off something like this, but yeah, I'm impressed."

I felt my face reddening. "Did you mean what you said though? You really consider me a friend?"

"Of course I meant it, Perc- I mean, Pearl. Hades, this is gonna be harder than I thought. Look, you're a friend, okay? You're an infuriating idiot who always jumps into things without thinking, but yeah, you're a friend." Thalia started to look visibly upset, just about on the verge of crying.

"What's wrong?"

She took a couple deep breaths before responding. "It's just… After I come back I found out that Luke has gone off the deep end. Now Annabeth is gone. I met you, but you're going to leave soon with the hunters. Everyone I touch ends up disappearing… Maybe things would just be better if I didn't exist. The gods certainly seem to think so…"

I sat down by my friend and put a calming arm around her. "Don't be ridiculous, you've had a lot of bad luck, but it's certainly not your fault that Luke was a bad egg, or that Annabeth is missing, or that I joined the hunters. That was all out of your control. The last two are really my fault.", I sighed, "And with the prophecy, it could just as easily be me. Who do you think the gods are going to pick a fight with, Zeus or Poseidon?"

Thalia let loose a ragged laugh. That was a good sign. "Per- Pearl. You're not the person in the prophecy. Don't you get it? You're never going to turn 16. The one who might destroy Olympus is _me_."

I didn't know what to say to that. Partly since I was in a bit of shock and relief at not being "The one" for once. And partly because really, what can you say to something like that? So Tease joined us in our spot on the hard frozen ground, and we just sat there for a while.

Eventually, however, I remembered why we had come to talk with Thalia in the first place. "So when are we going to go rescue Annabeth?"

Thalia's sad face darkened. "We're not."

"What do you mean, 'We're not'?! Of course we're going to save Annabeth!"

"No Pearl, you don't get it. Mr. D. isn't going to let us leave. When I told him what happened to Annabeth, he wouldn't even deign to use her name. She's been here for years, but that poor excuse of a god seemed to think that she's not worth our time, unless we get a prophecy."

* * *

Dinner was, in a word, interesting. Most of the tables were business as usual. Thalia had to sit alone at her table. The Stoll brothers were clearly doing their best to cheat Nico out of whatever small amount of money he had. No, what made it interesting was the hunters.

The Artemis table really was the only one to be having a good time. At first I'd instinctively headed towards to Poseidon table, but Tease grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me back to sit with the hunters. Most of them weren't exactly friendly, but they weren't yelling at me, or calling me a boy, so it was still a decent improvement. A large girl, Pheobe, was teaching Bianca how to arm wrestle. Bianca lost every time, but seemed to be having fun, the rest of the table cheering her on.

Chiron again announced the "Good-will" capture the flag competition tomorrow, which roused at least some interest.

Of more interest to me was what happened when I left my offering to the fire. For the first time, I didn't smell the sea breeze. What I got instead was hard to describe. It was like the night itself. Cool wind whispering. Dew in the grass. Crickets chirping. And moonlight.

I don't know why, but I started to cry, just a little. Maybe a lot. Tease came over and put an arm around me. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yes. I don't know. Maybe. It's just… I didn't feel my dad… Is he, I don't know, is he ashamed of me now?", I blubbered.

Somehow, she was able to understand what I said. "No Pearl. He's not ashamed of you. You'll always be a child of Poseidon. But you don't belong to him now. You belong with us, with Artemis. So when you gave up that offering, Poseidon rightly declined, it wasn't his to take, not anymore."

I don't remember much of what else happened that night, not even the strategy meeting. I fell asleep pretty much immediately, but then I was faced with a nightmare, of epic proportions.

* * *

 _Annabeth was on a dark hillside, shrouded in fog. It almost seemed like the Underworld, because I immediately felt claustrophobic and I couldn't see the sky above—just a close, heavy darkness, as if I were in a cave._

 _Annabeth struggled up the hill. Old broken Greek columns of black marble were scattered around, as though something had blasted a huge building to ruins._

 _"Thorn!" Annabeth cried. "Where are you? Why did you bring me here?" She scrambled over a section of broken wall and came to the crest of the hill._

 _She gasped._

 _There was Luke. And he was in pain._

 _He was crumpled on the rocky ground, trying to rise. The blackness seemed to be thicker around him, fog swirling hungrily. His clothes were in tatters and his face was scratched and drenched with sweat._

 _"Annabeth!" he called. "Help me! Please!"_

 _She ran forward._

 _I tried to cry out: He's a traitor! Don't trust him!_

 _But my voice didn't work in the dream._

 _Annabeth had tears in her eyes. She reached down like she wanted to touch Luke's face, but at the last second she hesitated._

 _"What happened?" she asked._

 _"They left me here," Luke groaned. "Please. It's killing me."_

 _I couldn't see what was wrong with him. He seemed to be struggling against some invisible curse, as though the fog were squeezing him to death._

 _"Why should I trust you?" Annabeth asked. Her voice was filled with hurt._

 _"You shouldn't," Luke said. "I've been terrible to you. But if you don't help me, I'll die."_

 _"Let him die, I wanted to scream. Luke had tried to kill us in cold blood too many times. He didn't deserve anything from Annabeth._

 _"Then the darkness above Luke began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Annabeth rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehow—tons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Luke just with her own strength. It was impossible. She shouldn't have been able to do that._

 _Luke rolled free, gasping. "Thanks," he managed._

 _"Help me hold it," Annabeth groaned._

 _Luke caught his breath. His face was covered in grime and sweat. He rose unsteadily._

 _"I knew I could count on you." He began to walk away as the trembling blackness threatened to crush Annabeth._

 _"HELP ME!" she pleaded._

 _"Oh, don't worry," Luke said. "Your help is on the way. It's all part of the plan. In the meantime, try not to die."_

 _The ceiling of darkness began to crumble again, pushing Annabeth against the ground._

 _I sat bolt upright in bed, clawing at the sheets. There was no sound in my cabin except the gurgle of the saltwater spring. The clock on my nightstand read just after midnight._

 _Only a dream, but I was sure of two things: Annabeth was in terrible danger. And Luke was responsible._

* * *

I bolted awake, in an ice cold sweat. And I wasn't the only one. Across the cabin, Zoe was sitting up too, panting just like me. She looked around the cabin and met my eyes. Silently, she got up and strode over to me.

"Did you also see our lady Artemis?"


End file.
